Someone's Mother
by NikitaDreams
Summary: A little fic I had to post after watching F8. How do you just adjust to something like that being dumped in your lap? Mia has some words of wisdom for her brother. Dom/Letty pairing. [One Shot] Spoilers for F8.


**_Author's Note: Okay guys, so I really just had to get this out there. It's really been bothering me a LOT since I saw the film. I know other people feel the same. I know some people are chill with things and others are accepting it. But I don't think that it would be quite that easy to have a surprise baby from another woman just dropped in your lap without more than a few days or a week's warning? So, this is my answer. A conversation between Mia and Dom that would take place at the end of F8. Spoilers for the movie Dom/Letty pairing. Please read and enjoy!_**

 _Los Angeles, California_

Becoming an instant parent wasn't really all that easy. Sure, loving your son came naturally. But all the other stuff?

Not easy.

Especially when it was a reality you had to face over a matter of days or weeks rather than months. There was next to no time to plan.

Sure Dom had changed Jack's diapers and gave him his bottles before. But that had been his nephew. And Mia had that little boy on a careful schedule from day one. He always went down at the same time, napped at the same time. He woke at almost the same times of the night before he learned to sleep through it.

His son had spent the last month of his life living in one tiny, darkened cell in an airplane. His sleep schedule was all over the place, and after a couple of sleepless nights with the unhappy boy, he'd called his sister and begged her to help.

She would be due soon enough with her second child, but Mia wouldn't have turned him down if she could have. She just wasn't that kind of person. So she'd moved back into the Toretto house for a couple of weeks and Jack would come over with Brian during the day and go back to the comfort of his own bed every night.

He was thrilled with this new, instant cousin he'd somehow received, and though everyone was certainly enamored of little Marcus, there was always that unspoken elephant in the room. And no one really knew how to talk about Elena.

At the tail end of the two weeks, Mia was getting her things together, ready to get home to her own family before she had to worry about bringing another baby into the world. She'd managed to get them all onto a schedule. Marcus went to bed by 8 every night and was usually up around 6:30 the next morning. It was definitely not Dom's preferred schedule. He still took two naps, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, but Mia had assured it should be down to only one fairly soon. She also thought he might start walking in a couple of months.

Dom wasn't sure how he felt about that. The kid could get in enough trouble just crawling.

Mia had baby proofed the entire house, putting little locks on cabinets and covering up outlets. She'd helped make the nursery a bit more homey, as it had only had the bare basics in it when they'd arrived. Of course, all their friends were more than happy to send toys and clothes and other gifts, generously. Marcus' first birthday would be coming up fairly soon so they'd probably get even more.

Every milestone was amazing to Dom, and yet, made him realize how many he'd also missed. He couldn't help but resent that Elena hadn't told him. Hadn't said anything, for so long. Why would she have waited?

Dom drifted into the guest room just as Mia was zipping her suitcase up. She looked up, then smiled. "Almost ready to go."

"Thanks Mi," he said. "You've been a great help. I don't know if I'd have been able to do it without you."

She nodded, then sat on the bed, patting the spot next to her. "Before I go… we need to talk."

He really didn't like that tone, but he sat anyway. "What is it?"

"It's about Letty," she said softly and Dom looked away. He'd known well enough his wife wasn't entirely happy with things. She hadn't been any more prepared for a baby than he had. It wasn't easy to adjust their lives like this.

"She'll get used to things," he said.

Mia glared at him. "I hope you didn't say that to her."

"What?" He blinked. "Why?"

"Dom," she sighed. "You have to understand. I've taken those first steps into motherhood and they're always scary. But I had looked forward to it. I got to experience nine months of carrying Jack inside of me. I got to plan his nursery and pick out his name. I gave birth to him and held him in my arms. At night, I was the one who comforted him. When he was so tiny and helpless. I'm his mother, and I have always been his mother." She bit down on her lower lip. "As much as Letty loves you, and god she really does, that's not her child."

Dom opened his mouth to protest, but Mia shot him a look.

"Just listen," she told him. "Eventually, he'll be her's. The only mother he's ever going to remember. He's too little for it to be differently. I know you'll tell him about Elena, but that's abstract, that knowing. But right now she's been asked to be a mother to a kid she wasn't prepared for. She doesn't know what to do anymore than you do. And… it has to hurt a little bit that he isn't her baby."

Mia rested her hand over his. "Dom… all the choices we've made in life have led us to this moment. But Letty's choices were taken away from her. When you left her in the DR…" his hand tightened on her's, and Dom couldn't meet her eyes. "We talked about it a bit. When she came home to LA she was so, so angry at you and so hurt. And so damn determined to bring you home." Mia blinked away tears, sniffed a little. "We didn't know she was alive. No one can blame you for trying to… move on, somehow. I know that you probably only tried because I worried. And I knew you were miserable, Dom. If we hadn't found Letty. You'd have been happy with this baby and satisfied with Elena. But you didn't… love her."

It felt wrong to say about a dead woman. A woman who'd died because of his choices. If he hadn't left Letty in the DR, would Elena still be alive, somewhere in Brazil?

Dom shook his head. "No, you're right," he said softly. "I didn't."

"You cared about her. But… it wasn't the same. Logically, Letty knows all of this. Hell, she saw you'd rather fall to your death in Spain trying to save her than live a life without her in it. But all of that flies out the window when it comes to how we feel. That when she was stuck running jobs for Owen Shaw you were… making a baby with Elena." She grimaced at it, looked away. "Sometimes life isn't fair. She's strong. She'll get past how she feels, and she won't say any of this to you because you already feel guilty enough."

"But you think I should know," he said.

"I think you need to know. Give her some time," she said softly, squeezing his shoulder. "Growing up, Letty was never the type to daydream about babies and picket fences. I don't think she cared about that. To be honest, I think she only ever thought about you and her, and maybe someday, you know? That if she was going to be a mom, then it would be you and her." She looked away. "I don't know if this is quite the same. I don't know if I'd have been able to do it, you know?" she said softly. "If Brian had come back into my life but had fathered a child with someone else. I don't know if we have that, intense, crazy all-in kind of love, Dom. Please don't take it for granted. Letty has been through enough." She leaned over then to hug him. "Give her time, but don't neglect her, okay? And if you need me, I'm only a phone call away."


End file.
